JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 2, 18 «. ] 
169 
vacant space was stopped, and was kept constantly 
pinched in the same way as the side growths. I should 
have preferred the terminal growth to extend somewhat 
further, but there was no chance for this without de¬ 
stroying the temporary Vines, and as these had some 
fruit on I hardly dared to do that. 
The growths all ripened well as they had done the 
previous autumn, and at pruning the side growths were 
cut back as they usually are with spur-pruning— i.e., 
one or two good eyes were left on them, the main 
stems being left with all the good growth they had, but 
this for reasons which I have previously stated was 
only from 3 to 6 feet, or about 12 feet in all for the 
two-years growth. The temporary Vines were now to 
be cleared away, and the following year the younger 
Vines would have the full range of the house. 
PLANTING THE BLACK HAMBURGHS. 
The same season that I have been writing about 
—viz., 1871, saw the compartment ready for the 
Hamburghs, for which purpose I had kept some strong 
one-year-old plants. These were cut down and started 
in pots, and then planted out when they were about a 
foot or 15 inches high and had just commenced root¬ 
ing. They grew very strongly, their stems becoming 
of great size the first season, and at pruning time we 
found their pith was dark-coloured and much too 
abundant, and the wood did not cut so firm as that of 
the other Vines. Although there was nothing but the 
simple material already described in the border, and 
they had nothing but clear water supplied to their 
roots, they were plainly overfed. 
I daresay that if they had experienced as many 
checks as young Vines usually do, and had been grown 
while they were in pots and afterwards in an unnatur¬ 
ally high night temperature, they would have had less 
vigour, and I know that many Vines are planted in 
the same stage which do fairly well, but their general 
treatment is not the same as I give. Here, then, I 
should probably have done better had I followed the 
rules laid down by many of our acknowledged teachers 
in the matter of heating, ventilating, &c. I own this 
much, for my plants were clearly grown too liberally. 
But on the other hand, when I make another start I 
shall not go in that direction, but as, in the case of the 
Muscats, I shall use fresli-struck plants, unless I go 
back a step further still and insert cuttings a foot long 
(where they are to remain), made much in the same 
way as Gooseberry and Currant cuttings are made. 
THE THIRD YEAR. 
The age of all the Vines was now the same, for al¬ 
though the Hamburghs were only planted the previous 
year, they were also now in the third year of their 
existence, and as I want to get the worst over first I 
shall continue with the history of the Hamburghs. 
From the time of commencing to prune them I was 
very much afraid they would not succeed. They started 
again very vigorously, showed fruit and ripened a crop 
fairly well, but the pith was more than dark this time— 
it was black, and the stems had black patches against 
the leafstalks, which colour continued partly up the 
leafstalk itself: the consequence was that the leaves 
turned a yellowish green prematurely, and there was 
great difficulty in ripening the wood. This state of 
things continued for three or four years, during which 
time they did not miss a crop of fruit, and they finished 
it off fairly w T ell, but I -was all the time in a state of 
disagreeable expectation (a sort of feeling that most 
gardeners are acquainted with, I imagine) that some¬ 
thing worse would happen. 
I tried several plans to remedy the evil. One season 
I started the Vines earlier, another they were allowed 
to start themselves. I allowed one Vine to ramble 
wildly, cut another back severely, and chopped the 
roots nearly all off a third. But nothing seemed to 
change them for the better. Their roots were of the 
most gross description, and if cut off almost close to 
the stem one autumn, were found out as far as the 
boundary wall the next. They ultimately exhausted 
the soil in the part which was bricked off for their roots, 
and then they commenced to behave better; but even 
now I am afraid to feed them much, for there are occa¬ 
sional signs of the black pith. Notwithstanding all 
this, with one or two exceptions, which I can trace to 
another cause and shall afterwards explain, they have 
each year produced fruit of more than average quality, 
and especially so as regards finish. The principal 
lesson I learn from this partial failure is, that if such 
vigorous plants are to be inserted their roots must be 
confined to a smaller space for a time, so as to limit 
the root-action somewhat. No one need fear that 
such a thing will happen wdien ordinary plants are 
used, for Vines as they are usually grown in pots have 
not a third of the vigour these had. 
The foregoing is a sample of the punishments we 
receive sometimes for venturing on originality, but it 
is all for a good purpose. It takes some of the conceit 
out of us ; and as dearly bought experience is most 
valued we are not likely to forget such severe lessons. 
But on the other hand we must not lose our heads 
when such things occur, and attribute the failure to the 
wrong cause. Fortunately for me in this case, I had 
two other compartments containing Vines treated in 
the same way, with the one exception that they were 
planted out at- different ages, and these two compart¬ 
ments up to this stage were doing well; so that, although 
much of the treatment was original, it was plainly not 
radically wrong. 
There is another thing which strikes me at this 
moment as having contributed to the unusual rampant 
growth of the Hamburghs. The border was made up 
for them directlv after those were finished for the 
other Vines, consequently it had lain several months, 
during which tune it had heated a little (as they all 
did), and its vegetable matter was partly decomposed, 
therefore in the best possible condition to supply plant 
food in great abundance. The plants being very 
vigorous to commence with, possessing abundant roots, 
many of them in fact large enough to be called “ under¬ 
ground stems ” which were spread out as far as they 
could reach, and the tops being cut off, there was no 
outlet for the sap, and there was a plethoia of it. In 
the case of the other Vines they were not cut down, 
and they had both leaves and fruit demanding to be 
supplied. 
But I may be told that it is a very general thing to 
use partly decayed turf for Vines and other plants. I 
know it is, but in most cases there is a great deal of 
other material mixed with it which is supposed to be 
necessary, much of which, however, has the effect only 
of impoverishing the soil; and in this case nothing what¬ 
ever w r as used with the turf but a few handfuls of bones, 
and these from some cause which I have not yet been 
able to fathom were all decayed, so that there was no 
